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Today’s newsletter is made possible by:
https://www.surfnetkids.com/asteroids.htm When I began research for this week’s topic, my first quest was learning the difference between an asteroid and a comet. Here’s what I discovered. Comets (dirty snowballs) are primarily composed of ice and dust. As they near the sun, the heat melts the comet’s ices and releases the dust particles we view as the comet’s tail. Asteroids (minor planets) are large rocks ranging in size from a few feet to several hundred miles across. Ready to learn more? Asteroid Introductionhttp://www.solarviews.com/eng/asteroid.htm
Asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth are called meteoroids. When a meteoroid strikes our atmosphere at high velocity, friction causes this chunk of space matter to incinerate in a streak of light known as a meteor. If the meteoroid does not burn up completely, what’s left strikes Earth’s surface and is called a meteorite.” Asteroid Sciencehttp://explorezone.com/space/asteroids.htm
“Quick quiz: How many planets orbit our Sun? If you said nine, you’re shy by several thousand. Scientists consider asteroids to be minor planets – some are hundreds of miles wide (and seldom round).” In addition to a great introduction, best clicks here are the explanation of the Torino scale (“Used to categorize the threat of asteroids, the Torino Scale is similar to the familiar ‘Richter Scale’ of earthquake measurement.”) and the Asteroid News Zone. Asteroidshttp://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/asteroids.html
In the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, there are twenty-six asteroids larger than 124 miles in diameter, traveling along with hundreds of thousands of smaller asteroids. This page, created by amateur astronomer Bill Arnett, nicely catalogs what is known (and unknown) about these minor planets. Links to great NASA photographs are at the bottom of the page. Asteroids: Deadly Impacthttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/asteroids/
“WARNING ! AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY! DEPARTMENT OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. COMPUTER ACCESS RESTRICTED TO DEP AGENTS Great Balls of Firehttp://www.discovery.com/stories/science/meteors/meteors.html
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